Crowd building

[Devinthejuggler]

Ok, I need some help from the pros here.
I would like to start a discussion on crowd building, does anyone have any tips or tricks or some good sense to impart.

Im talking cold tuesday afternoon kind of stuff.
at the moment i'v sort of had my crowds handed to me on a plate becuase the place i work has so much traffic, but i'm wanting to venture out on to a cold pitch that hasn't been worked before, i think it may be somewhat of a different story.

[CutThroat]

Look busy. Like you're preparing for something huge.

[Lee Nelson]

charisma..talk to people and make them like you

[martin ewen]

One secret is to chop tasks up, say three things but as you are chopping and changing from one to another without finishing them then you are obviously working with some sort of purpose but that purpose is hidden from your audience.
People are fundimentally curious apes, being curious used to save lives back when we wandered about evolving and we are still the same mammal really.

So confuse them but don't let them come to any conclusion and you , by doing so, will gather a crowd.

[MagiCol]

Devin, Have you done a search on this site to find any other threads on the topic? My juggling is at the very low end of things, and I dont do it on the streets so I don't have experience of what works for jugglers.
I'm a street magician and I reckon that Street Magician work probably needs the most intense interaction with the crowds of all types of busking. That includes building a crowd. So I recommend that you go to the following sites and see what could be useful for you.

Sidewalk Performers.com
The Buskers Cafe
The Magic Cafe.com and look at the Sidewalk subsection.

All the best in your peforming.

[RiffRaff]

Martin, can you give an example of this 'chopping' technique?

[Jim]

David Cassel's article in the library has a good explanation of the psychology of crowd building. It might spark some ideas...

http://www.performers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15891

[Devinthejuggler]

Devin, Have you done a search on this site to find any other threads on the topic?

eish, yes...found it dont mind me.

[Dynamikemagic]

Attitude plays an important role in this.

[Devinthejuggler]

Martin! I figured out what you were talking about 'chopping things'! in amazing epiphany, i was doing it and then afterwards i thought 'aaah, thats what he was saying' very effective for a long build.

heres an example:

Monday evening, nice out ( i have to set the scene, this is the first summer i'v done in my homeland as a fulltime performer and its friekn beautiful!) table mountain in the background christmas lights up, not many people i stood there for like 15 minutes trying to start the flame of interest, shit it paid off. I think i did my best show ever tonight when i thought i wasnt going to able to get a crowd, i just stuck it out and i got one or two people, then, ah thank god a family!
I grab the kid ( my bit with the id is i give him a cymbal and he hits the cymbal i tell the crowd that they musnt let the kid down and they must cheer when he hits the cymbal (little bit of phsyche manipulation there...thrilling

anyway, all the while i got kid gags to go with it, but i give him the cymbal, and its created a bit of a stir we do a practise run, but in between doing that, i'v told everyone the reason we are doing this to get a crowd and they are into it, all the while puling out gags on people walking past, telling people to move in, and putting my costume on, posing for pictures and this is like 5 minutes into the show and i havent really done anything yet but its coming and people know what they have to do sooner or later the have to clap for the kid...still no tricks yet. and in between that one gag with the kid were about ten other things that were 'chopped' into the mix.

anyway, i dont know if that example is helpfull to anyone but myself and the defrag of the event. but there it is!

fuck! this is soo awesome, you guys are all missing summer in africa? what could you possibly be doing thats that important?

[martin ewen]

I've heard [in a kinda, "don't tell anyone else but..." way] that Capetown is a little gem.

anyway that chopping thing, the other use for it is defensive.
If during your gig you come face to face with the potential of real physical violence without the time to defuse it then if you have a 10 second piece where you make lots of deliberate movements that don't make sense, [going to scratch your head/break/ reaching for invisable object/break/ smil;ing at your foot/break/ etc

You do this and the antagonist gets put into trance, he cannot help it, he's a curious ape, his brain has to make sense of what you're doing.

You do this stuff and the last /break/ is you simply walking away.
You have about 10 seconds [which is a long time] after your last break where he will be rooted to the spot while his brain's still churning. He'll come too, you won't be there.
I learn't it at clown school. It works.

[Devinthejuggler]

oh okay, i wont tell anyone

haha, well, hopefully i never have to use this little piece of wisdom!

[El Mago]

That's beautiful Mr. Ewen, thank you for sharing that.

[martin ewen]

you're welcome,
to recap
you do it slowly and widely across your stage as you make it and create a slow languid quizzical type trance that effects a percentage of passers by.
You do it precisely while standing in one spot [don't want to engage a fight or flight response in someone predisposed to 'fight' ] and rapidly in close proximity to your subject to effect a sudden sharp strong trance.

Now get out there and practice acting wierd,[as if you need practice]

[solrak29]

I had to bring this one up again as I found it interesting to handle the
situation where there is slow build.

I don't completely understand this procedure, but from what I get here
is that you slow down and have material that you can work in to
help slow the process to get attention and start building your crowd.

For example, as a magician, I do a sponge routine. Generally, manipulation
will atttract one person or gain attention. Sometimes, I actually have
to talk and/or say, "watch this trick" to get someone's attention. Then
from there work what you do but adding bits above to extend this
to build the crowd???